


What is Dead May Never Die

by Sciencelings



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst with a Happy Ending, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Awesome Pepper Potts, Canonical Character Death, Contacting the Dead, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Ghosts, Guardian Angel AU, Guardian Angels, Pepper Potts Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is good with kids, Supernatural Elements, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, but not really, endgame spoilers, i tried to balance the happy and the sad and I hope it worked
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 20:24:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18724342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sciencelings/pseuds/Sciencelings
Summary: ENDGAME SPOILERS!!!Death has never been the end and even in the afterlife, heroes stay heroes. Because they're too stubborn to chill out for one goddamn second.





	What is Dead May Never Die

The last thing Tony saw was his family. A selfish part of him wished that his little Morgan was there, but he was glad that she wasn’t. This would be hard on her if she even understood what was happening. His wife, his beautiful perfect wife crouched in front of him in her new cool-toned armor, trying her hardest not to break down. Behind her was Peter with Rhodey’s gray metal arm around his shoulders, both with tears in their eyes, but Peter’s were a little more apparent. He seemed to be trying he hide it with his hands over his mouth but his red-rimmed eyes were heartbreakingly obvious. 

 

Tony knew that he was only moments away from death, he could feel it looming over him and he was paralyzed. He had never been afraid of death, only of leaving. He didn’t want to leave his wife or his best friends or his kid… kids. He didn’t want to leave Morgan or Peter. He wished he had reached out to Harley more, he could raise Morgan more, he could protect Peter more. He would do anything to stay. To not have to know what his death would do to the people around him. 

 

He thought about Peter, and how it would be worse for him because it wasn’t the first time for something like this to happen. He regretted thinking about it, at least Peter was alive. Tony sacrificed his life to keep it that way. Peter may be traumatized and broken-hearted but he was alive. They were all alive. 

 

The last thing Tony heard was a sob. He knew it was from Pepper, when she thought he had bit the dust. But he had a single moment left. He used it thinking about the people he loved. He was content. 

 

He didn’t think that there was anything after death. He had always believed the grimmest of afterlives, that there was just darkness. He would just stop existing. However, he wasn’t right about that. He entered the light and there was something more. He tried to convince himself that it was an illusion, but he was glad that it wasn’t when his vision cleared. 

 

“Good morning Shellhead, I’m glad I’m not the only one that ended up here.” An ethereal version of Natasha Romanov smiled down at him and held out her hand to help him stand up. She looked pristine and almost glowing. Her short curled hair was bright and looked like it had been animated for a Disney movie and her eyes were greener than ever. That wasn’t the strangest thing though. On her back were a pair of elegant sharp wings. If Tony knew better, he’d say she was an angel. They started out as red as her hair at the top but the feathers became more frosted white as they went down. She looked like she was part hellfire and part cumulonimbus cloud. 

 

Tony honestly didn’t think that his friend could look more beautifully terrifying. 

 

“You look good for being dead,” Tony took her hand and sort of floated to his feet. It was an odd feeling. Being dead felt really weird in a way that he couldn’t explain. Light, painless, warm, relaxing, he didn’t remember feeling anything like it. 

 

“Surprisingly enough, so do you.” Nat quirked an eyebrow up. 

 

“Oh! Are there mirrors in hell?” Tony looked around. 

 

“We didn’t sacrifice our lives to end up in hell. We have a much more fun job.” She smirked. 

 

“Does the job require… uh, wings? Nice foliage by the way.” 

 

“They’re a perk. Apparently, sacrificing yourself for the universe is pretty noble in the eyes of whoever watches over the dead. We’re not just ghosts now. We got an upgrade.” 

 

“What in the everloving Christ do you mean. Can you speak like a normal person?” 

 

“We’re guardian angels now. Apparently, heroes stay heroes. Except we’re a little more anonymous now. I’ve never had that as a problem but you might have to get used to it.” 

 

“Does that mean… I can..” Tony stumbled with a thought. Nat’s eyes softened. 

 

“You can watch over your family. They can’t see you, I already tried to see Clint but he passed right through me. We can only protect them now.” 

 

“I don’t care I just want to see them,” Tony said with a soft sob. 

 

“You will.” Nat nodded. “It just may not be as kind to you as you think it will be.”

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Tony never thought that he would be attending his own funeral. It was just self-centered enough to annoy him. It also annoyed him to see everyone so… broken and depressed. Maybe annoyed wasn’t the right word. It felt like being stabbed in the chest even though he was already dead. He hated seeing his family all huddled together with tears on their cheeks and haunted looks from the ones who witnessed it. 

 

He hated that Morgan didn’t understand and that Peter understood much too well. He hated that Pepper could barely hold herself together and that Harley had to stand alone at the back and barely anyone knew who he was. He hated that even people he thought hated him stood with their eyes down in respectful sorrow. 

 

He tried to keep an eye on everyone but decided that after Peter muttered something to May and departed from the group, he decided to follow him. He realized why he followed when Peter started to sob, far away from the group, so that no one would hear his despair, except for the person he was despairing over. 

 

Tony walked silently in front of his kid. The kid that didn’t see him. Tony didn’t care, he reached out his hand and wiped the tears from his cheeks. Surprisingly, he could. Peter’s sobs slowed down and took a shaky breath. With an ethereal hand on Peter’s back, Tony led his boy to a bench at the edge of the lake, where they could only see the floral memorial floating only a dozen feet away. 

 

“I’m sorry Tony…” Peter whispered. 

 

“Don’t you fucking start-” Tony stated, knowing fully well that Peter couldn’t hear him. 

 

“I can’t- I can’t live without you… I’m not… strong enough.” Peter stammered. 

 

“You are the strongest person I know.” 

 

“I already lost my parents and my uncle and now you… is it going to be May next? Am I just cursed because it definitely feels like it. I’m not… god, what did I do wrong to deserve this. Was I like, Hitler in my past life? Did I like, kill Abraham Lincoln or Jesus? Oh my god did I kill Jesus.”

 

“You didn’t kill Jesus, the universe just wants to get even because you’re too… good. And the universe is kind of an asshole.” 

 

“Anyway, I’m sorry that you won’t see your little iron kid grow up or you won’t… god, I remember planning on inviting you to my graduation… and… shit, you’re going to miss so much.” Peter stumbled. 

 

“Nothing’s going to keep me away from my family, not even biting the dust,” Tony promised to deaf ears. 

 

“When you’re up there… say hi to mom and dad… and Ben for me. Tell them that I miss them. And I already miss you. I love you Mr. Stark. You were the closest thing I had to a dad when I had thought that there wasn’t a chance of getting that kind of thing ever again. I… You helped me. So much. It’s easier to convince myself that you weren’t stuck with me.” 

 

Tony didn’t, no, couldn’t reply. He knew that Peter clung to him like the father figure that he so desperately needed but he wasn’t aware that Peter felt guilty for even existing. When he thought about it, he could see it. After his parents had died, Richard Parker's brother Ben took Peter in. Peter wasn’t biologically related to May. He thought he was too much of a burden on her. He honestly didn’t completely understand how goddamn much she loved him. 

 

Tony considered that the kid's guilt complex was just as annoyingly persistent as his own. He really wished that it wasn’t, that shit was self-destructive and Peter really didn’t deserve anything like that. Peter Parker deserved more than what anyone in the universe could give him. Peter Parker deserved every good thing and yet if given the chance, would give it all away to someone he deemed needed it more despite needing some for himself. 

 

Tony didn’t know exactly how he did it, but he knew that Peter needed someone, someone he could relate to and he knew that he couldn’t let the kid be alone, without comfort. If Tony couldn’t hold his kid in his arms, he was going to find someone who could. And it had to be someone new. Someone he knew would get along with Peter. He didn’t know exactly what he did, but he somehow connected them. 

 

“Peter?” Harley asked from several feet behind them. 

 

“Oh shit, sorry. Was I…” Peter quickly straightened up and wiped the leftover tears from off of his cheeks as if it wasn't completely obvious that he had been crying. 

 

“No, I just left to get some fresh air, even though we were already outside. You know he talked about you, right?” Tony’s other almost son sat by Peter on the bench, close enough to activate the emergency half hug if he needed to. 

 

“Oh god…” Peter groaned with some exaggeration. 

 

“Nothing too bad. You’ll be glad to know that I thought you were a nerd before I knew you were a five foot three dumbass.” Harley smiled warmly, meaning no harm in his words. He was the kind of guy that called his best friends dumb bitches as he held them in his arms. 

 

“Yeah well that’s not hard to tell, I’m pretty sure that one local paper has me on record saying some pretty nerdy stuff as well as Buzzfeed. I think they made a compilation of the dumb shit I’ve said…” 

 

“Yeah, Tony printed it out and hung it in the lab.” 

 

“He did what?” Peter looked over with an aggressively confused expression. 

 

“He did, he also has one printed of his own comebacks to compare you humor to his own. They are surprisingly similar. He just tends to reference older movies than you do.” Harley shrugged. 

 

“Okay that was like one afternoon, I didn’t do it often.” Tony sighed, still thinking to verbalize his thoughts as if anyone could hear him. 

 

“I mean I totally got my humor from him. Captain America just isn’t as funny.” 

 

“You’re damn right.” Tony scoffed. 

 

“He’s only ever accidentally funny like he’s never trying to be and it just happens. It’s mostly just funny to make fun of him.” Harley explained. 

 

“So Tony told you about Cap. I never really knew much about him, I had Tony right after the whole civil war thing and they had too much bad blood to talk about super casually. I never really got the chance to figure him out.” 

 

“There isn’t really much to figure out. He’s the definition of a righteous dumbass but at least he’s becoming more self-aware. Also, I think you’re trying to avoid talking about Tony.” Harley's words made Peter avoid his eyes and become entranced with a single blueish rock on the ground. Harley activated the comforting half hug and Peter leaned in without a moment's hesitation. 

 

“I guess there was a reason for that… I want to pretend that he’s not gone even though I heard his heart stop beating. I want to believe he’s still around, spying on me and sending vague texts about what the baby monitor protocol picked up, just to show that he was still watching even though I’m very sure he was constantly checking in with Karen to see if I was doing anything stupid.” Peter rambled. 

 

“He is… was pretty clingy.” 

 

“Hey! Excuse me for caring…” Tony groaned. 

 

“We should probably get back to the crowd. I wanted to meet Thor…” Peter sighed and stood up. 

 

“Yeah, and I want you to meet Morgan, she is an absolute gem.” Harley smiled. “Tony told her about you so she might immediately claim you once she figures out who you are.” 

 

“I have high expectations then.” They started to walk away from Tony before Peter looked back a little confused. 

 

“You okay?”

 

“Yeah, I just… I thought I saw him… God, I’m deep in denial...”

 

“Come on, I think you need a nap or something…”

 

“Okay…” Peter sighed as his eyes scanned the area and hesitated right where Tony was. But Peter didn’t see him. Tony stood there in thought, Peter… saw him. Even if only for a moment. Only a glance. Tony wasn’t completely invisible and he was desperate to run with the hint of an idea. 

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Peter admitted, he was not handling Tony’s death well. He couldn’t go to sleep without dreaming of the moment when he was gone. He woke up gasping and with May running into his room to calm him down. He always said he was fine but they both knew that he was having a rough time. And she knew that this wasn’t something she could fix. 

 

For some reason, it was different than when Ben died. It shouldn’t have been, it felt the same, but it wasn’t. When Ben died, Peter didn’t see him everywhere like he was alive.He didn’t see Ben out of the corner of his eye but he still felt the warm blood on his hands. Peter just kept seeing Tony out of the corner of his eye but when he did a double take, he was gone. Like he was never there. He was starting to think that he was going crazy.

 

It was only after several events that he began to realize that he may not be crazy and that something more was going on. First was the pictures. Whenever he took pictures, there was an odd little blob of light in a bunch of them, some of them blurred for no reason and sometimes there was an indistinguishable figure. 

 

Then weird things happened when he was on patrol. He used Spider-Man as an escape even though hearing Karens voice and being in the suit was hard. He would do his normal thing of quipping with criminals who tried to take advantage of the world being in disarray and every once in a while, weird shit happened. He would have a knife thrown at him and before he could dodge, it would be knocked out of the air by nothing. He would be being shot at and not a single bullet would even graze his body even though the chances of that were minuscule. 

 

Along with the visual hallucinations, he had auditory hallucinations. He heard Tony. Well, not really. It was like he could predict what the man would say in his mind while his memory playing tricks on him. It happened constantly. When he woke up, he “imagined” Tony telling him to wake up with a sarcastically optimistic phrase, when he had a nightmare he thought of what Tony would do to comfort him and when he was alone there was always Tony’s voice keeping him company. 

 

So, he was going crazy. Until it started to make sense. Until he started to learn more about the paranormal. He realized that Tony’s spirit was still around to annoy him. It made it a little harder to deal with the loss but when he realized that Tony was still there, he didn’t want to ignore it. He wanted to contact his deceased mentor. 

 

Peter got prepared. He watched a bunch of ghost hunting shows to get ready for something like this and he managed to acquire everything he would need. Spend the weekend at the Starks lake home, check. A really sensitive microphone, check. An Ouija board that Aunt May forbade him to use, check. A camera to document it all, check. The Iron Man build-a-bear that Morgan let him borrow, check. His emotional support rom-com queued on the TV, check. He decided that he was fully prepared for his totally scientific experiment. 

 

Of course, before he was able to execute it, he had to have a family dinner with Pepper and Morgan and Harley and he ended up having to do most of the cooking because Harley was entertaining Morgan and Pepper had last minute work to do. Thankfully, Peter was better at cooking than May and not only did nothing set on fire, but the actual food ended up not being too bad. It could’ve been classified as pretty good. Peter told them how he used to help Ben make food because May was always back late from work and she could never make anything more complicated than pasta. 

 

They all tried to make conversation as if they weren’t all heavily traumatized. Thankfully, Morgan was unaware of the constant haze of depression in the air and she talked as if nothing was wrong. It was refreshing. She blabbled about anything she could think of and truthfully Peter couldn’t understand most of it but Pepper and Harley, who had experience with small children, translated as if it were another language. 

 

After dinner, Peter hung out with Morgan while Pepper and Harley did the dishes and cleaned up. It took a lot of focus to figure out what Morgan was saying but he eventually pieced together that Tony had actually told her about Peter. She latched onto him with impressive speed and accuracy. It took him two full hours to convince her to get off. And he could only do that when he promised to tell her a story which ended up being him telling her about the time Tony went in disguise to his school and used his civilian name of ‘Anthony Potts’ to check him out for a mission that ended up just being a movie marathon because he discovered that Peter had never watched Monty Python. May ended up getting mad but not for long because Tony let her join them. 

 

Then Morgan asked him to sing. She said that her dad did it when she had nightmares and she wanted to make sure that she would have good dreams. Peter wasn’t strong enough to say no so he sang the Italian lullaby that May had put back into play after his own nightmares had come back in full force. He would be embarrassed about it but it was one of those things that helped more than he was willing to admit. It made him feel safe and nostalgic like looking at an old book that he used to love or listening to a song that had been his favorite so many years ago. 

 

His voice wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t anything unique. It was gentle and deeper than his speaking voice but at least he wasn’t tone deaf. Peter sang until he could hear Morgans breathing and heart-rate slow down enough until he was pretty sure she was asleep. When he snuck out of the room, Pepper gave him a look which revealed that not only did she hear him but she thought it was precious. She smiled when his cheeks turned pink in embarrassment. 

 

“Don’t you dare…” He unsuccessfully threatened. 

 

“Come on Peter, that was adorable.” 

 

“My fragile masculinity is on the line, Mrs. Stark.” He defended as she huffed out a quiet laugh that tried to be quiet as not to wake her kid. 

 

“Well, I think you’re making a great big brother. How are you so good with kids? Does May have any siblings with kids?”

 

“No, but Spider-Man has to deal with a fair amount of children so I guess I got used to it. Even to a point where I had to take care of an infant for a full six hours after this really stressed lady left it on the subway and she cried when she saw me.” 

 

“And the kid survived? Well, count me as impressed.” She patted the seat next to her. “Do you want to watch a movie?” 

 

“Nah, I was planning on communicating with your husband with ghost stuff before it gets too late.” 

 

“If a demon possesses my house then you have to call Doctor Strange. I feel like he would be able to deal with that type of thing.” 

 

“Well, yeah, I don’t think a demon will come through though.” He flopped next to her on the couch and she automatically wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “But if one does, I’m sure we can take an impromptu trip to New Asgard while our magical doctor takes care of it.” 

 

“I like the way you think. So, why are you suddenly interested in summoning the ghost of my spouse?” 

 

“There has been some weird shit going on that I think is paranormal and might be Tony following me around. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain but maybe if I can talk to him, I’ll be able to find out what’s going on.” Peter shrugged. 

 

They talked for a while, Peter trying to explain what had been going on and why he thought it was Tony, Pepper seeming a little doubtful but not explicitly so. Eventually, Pepper decided to go check up on Morgan and leave him to his ghost hunting. 

 

Peter lit some a bunch of random candles, a handful of them being strongly scented from some store specifically for stuff like that. He set up the camera and the sensitive microphone before putting the Oujia board on the coffee table and the Iron Man build-a-bear on his lap. He took a breath before starting the session. 

 

“Mr. Stark... If you’re here, can you uh, make your presence known?” His fingertips lightly rested on the planchette and waited for something to happen. Then the rolling piece of wood started to move without him putting much pressure on it. It pointed at the letters in the order of ‘H-E-Y K-I-D.’ Which is very much a greeting Tony would use. Peter smiled and felt oddly giddy. 

 

“Okay uh, cool.” Peter tried to process the implications while the planchette moved again. This time it spelled out E-V-P. 

 

“Oh, you want to talk through the microphone?”

 

‘E-A-S-I-E-R’ 

 

“Are you too impatient Mr. Stark?” 

 

‘K-I-D’ 

 

“Okay fine, the microphone is already connected, go wild.” 

 

‘D-O-N-T-S-A-S-S-M-E’ 

 

“You’re too dead to tell me what to do.”

 

‘R-U-D-E’ 

 

“What I want to know is if I can get you back. Not like a zombie but I want to… I want to see you. I want to talk to you. If we can figure out how you can mess with technology, we might be able to make something that could… be you.” Tony didn’t respond. Not using the Ouija board or the EVP. “I’m getting you back Tony. I can’t… I can’t live without you.” Peter played back the recording a second later and sobbed when he heard Tony’s voice. Not only was Peter not crazy but what he said made him feel like someone took his heart out and squeezed it. 

 

‘I’ve never left you.’ his voice was filled with static and it took a few tries to hear the words but when he did, he froze in place. 

 

“We’re going to find a way. Your daughter deserves to know her father.” 

 

‘You deserve to have one too.’ 

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

It was not easy. It took months of constant effort and repeating tests over and over. It took weeks of sleepless nights and a couple of frustrated meltdowns but finally, Peter found something that Tony could manipulate well enough to actually show himself. He appeared in the form of a blue hologram and Peter finally saw the true form of his father figure. Tony had big fluffy wings that he said were red and gold but it didn’t translate very well with the blue hologram but they could figure that out. He couldn’t focus on the success, he had to make sure that everything worked. He made Tony talk to him and when there wasn’t any interference, he choked back a sob. 

 

Then there was the physical test. Tony reached out his hand and Peter met it with his own, completely expecting it to pass through like it would with a normal hologram. But when their hands met, he felt it. Tony was actually there. Not quite like a real person but it wasn’t like a ghost. It was difficult to explain, but Tony was there. And Peter couldn’t control being buried in a hug. Tony used his wings for the hug too like having two extra arms and Peter had never felt safer. It took a few minutes before he was able to let go. 

 

Tony was back, and Peter refused to lose him ever again.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! I'm considering doing more with this AU so if you have any ideas, just comment. I also did art for this AU that you can find with this link: https://sciencelings-arts.tumblr.com/post/184606607048/what-is-dead-may-never-die-rip-the-heart-and-soul
> 
> I take writing prompts on my writing blog which is 'Sciencelings-writes' and if you wanna see more art, it's 'Sciencelings-arts' my main is science-lings.


End file.
